1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to feed intake limiting compositions, and in particular, it relates to feed intake limiting compositions which limit intake of a feed supplement by cattle. The present invention also relates to a method for limiting the intake of food supplement by self-feeding cattle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most animals raised for slaughter are fed in a free choice environment. By a free choice environment is meant that feed is placed in a feed bunk or other suitable container and the animal eats until it is satisfied or until the feed bunk is empty.
Feed supplements are offered to cattle in addition to roughage sources such as pasture or hay. Typically, the feed supplement is placed on a daily or twice daily basis in a feed bunk either manually or automatically and the animals are permitted to feed at will. Some animals eat more than their share of feed supplement while other are denied their share of feed supplement. Overeating by animals is generally wasteful since an animal will eat more feed supplement than it can efficiently metabolize. Individually administering a predetermined amount of feed supplement to individual animals where large numbers of animals are involved is not a practical alternative.
There have been attempts to include various compositions into feed supplements to control consumption by individual cattle. High levels of salt (sodium chloride) have been used for many years to limit free choice feed supplement consumption by cattle. However, for salt to be effective as a feed intake limitor, high levels of salt such as 18% by weight must be used. In addition, it has been found that cattle have become used to salt so that even higher levels, as high as 50%, have had to be used to limit the intake of feed supplements. Such high levels of salt are deleterious to pasture land, especially where animals congregate.
Other compositions have also been tried as intake limiting compositions. For example, gypsum (calcium sulfate) has also been tried as a feed intake limitor.
Patents which describe intake limiting compositions or feed supplements which contain intake limiting compositions include:
______________________________________ Karr et al 3,669,676 McNeff 4,182,755 Betz 4,197,319 Lanter et al 4,225,621 Betz et al 4,234,604 Betz et al 4,311,713 ______________________________________
Another information source relating to feed intake limitors is a Master of Science thesis presented to the University of Nebraska in 1979 by Jerry Edward Jensen entitled "Restricting Intake of Energy Supplements Fed to Yearling Steers Grazing Irrigated Pastures". Jensen's thesis discloses several supplement intake regulators including but not limited to salt, fat, calcium, chloride, phosphoric acid, gypsum, and aluminum sulfate.
However, none of the immediately above-mentioned patents or other information sources describe an effective feed supplement intake limitor which is less expensive than the other limitors currently available, mixes easily with feed supplements without requiring special handling or procedures, is readily available on a commercial basis, does not have any or minimal deleterious effects on the cattle, and effectively limits consumption of feed supplement to a selected amount.